Waatea News Update

News from Waatea 603 AM, Urban Maori radio, first with Maori news

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Arikinui still in hospital

The Maori Queen, Te Arikinui Dame te Atairangikaahu, is spending a further day in Waikato Hospital.

Spokesperson Lady Reiha Mahuta says Dame Te Ata was in a comfortable condition overnight, after a day of tests.

Medical staff will have a conference with family members this morning, and Dame te Ata will also undergo a previously scheduled dialysis.

She was admitted to hospital on Tuesday morning after experiencing difficulty breathing, but Lady Reiha denies reports that Dame Te Ata, who turns 75 this month, had a heart attack.

Lady Reiha says the people of Waikato-Tainui are praying for their leader.

SPIN OVERRIDES POTENTIAL FOR PAREKURA

National MP Georgina Te Heuheu says the Government's new Maori potential framework looks more spin than action.

The Budget reallocated $23.6 million of Te Puni Kokiri's spending to programmes which are supposed to help Maori communities improve their lot getting more out of their land and natural resources, traditional knowledge and leadership.

Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia says its staff will spend less time behind their desks and more out in the community.

Mrs te Heuheu says that is not the way it will work, as the job of the officials is to sit at their desks producing reports.

SQUEEGIE BANDIT PREMIERES AT FILM FEST

Sione's Wedding did it for Grey Lynn. Now the streets of South Auckland are coming to the silver screen in a way that hasn't been seen before.

The documentary Squeegee Bandit premieres tomorrow on the opening night of the Auckland Film Festival.

It follows the life of Starfish, a Maori man in his late 30s who survives by washing car windows at intersections.

Kiwa Productions head Rhonda Kite says the film follows his struggles through nine months, three cars, two women, thirty homes, a hundred run-ins with the cops, one court date, a kilo of marijuana, finding God and the Zen of window washing.

Ms Kite says Starfish stood out among the window washers because of the way he bombarded the filmmakers with questions.

PRINCIPAL TAKING ON WIDER SIGN CAUSE

Maori immersion school principal Hawea Vercoe says it's time to start putting bilingual signs on Bay of Plenty roads.

Mr Vercoe has been fighting Land Transport New Zealand over the use of signs saying kura rather than school on busses carrying children from Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Rotoiti.

Now through Rotorua District Council's Te Arawa Standing Committee he has asked the council to embrace the reo.

Mr Vercoe says bilingual signage was a big factor in the success of the Welsh language revival in Wales, and it's long overdue in Aotearoa.

Hawea Vercoe says countries like Japan and Switzerland are happy with signs in multiple languages.

TAINUI GROWS SIZE OF ASSETS

Tainui has grown the value of its settlement by more than a third over the past year, allowing it to invest more in tribal development.

Commercial arm Tainui Group Holdings made a net operating profit of $17.8 million in the year ending March 31, an increase of 43 percent on 2005.

Group assets now stand at $312 million.

It paid a $10.6 million dividend to its shareholder, the Waikato Raupatu Lands Trust, which uses it for marae grants, education scholarships and other development objectives.

Acting chief executive Hinerangi Raumati says the result comes from careful management of an asset portfolio which includes property, shares, fixed interest investments and developments such as the 50-50 joint venture with The Warehouse to develop The Base shopping complex at Te Rapa.

She says it's a far cry from 2000, when Tainui had to sell off loss making investments. That portfolio was much more wighted towards start up companies.

KIPA COLONISES DENVER

Taranaki artist and ta moko expert Rangi Kipa says art is giving Maori a chance to do some colonisation of their own

Kipa has been awarded $65 thousand Creative New Zealand craft fellowship, which he will use to work on a major sculpture to be shown at the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art next year.

He says the theme of the work, a carved whare made of traditional and modern materials, is the effect of colonisation on Maori.

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